Gallery publications pick up awards

The publication supporting Brett Graham’s 2020-21 exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata, edited by Anna-Marie White, was a joint winner of the Best Medium Exhibition Catalogue. Judges Melissa Keys and Dr Ann Stephen noted the high level of competition in this category, and commended the Gallery and fellow category winner Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū for Te Puna Wairoa: The distinguished Weavers of Te Kāhui Whiritoi for communicating “a profound knowledge of Māori aesthetics and deep cultural histories. Brett Graham’s extraordinary installation at Govett-Brewster brilliantly engages with histories of imperialism and global Indigenous art.”

A further Govett-Brewster publication – the exhibition catalogue for d harding’s There is no before received a Highly Commended award in the same category, with the judges noting the publication provided “an insightful kind of ‘field guide’ to encourage cross-cultural sharing.”

The Gallery’s 2021 Uneven Bodies (Reader), edited by Ruth Buchanan, Aileen Burns & Johan Lundh and Hanahiva Rose, also received a Highly Commended award for Best Artist-Led Publication. The publication, which grew out of a 2020 symposium at the Govett-Brewster, was noted by category judges Associate Professor Martyn Jolly and Associate Professor Robert Nelson as “effectively using the structure of the exhibition to organise the short essays, interviews, and transcripts. All of the texts were grounded in actual curatorial and art practice, and many dealt with tough postcolonial issues head on, meaning the reader will continue to be a very useful resource. The book has a readable, presumably inexpensive design, which seems congruent with a public event exploring social and historical relations with art.”